Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Fire Sale in Encino Village/Park (Y2/M3/D11)

Today, we venture out of Sherman Oaks to a neighboring area called both Encino Village and Encino Park (click to enlarge). I have driven through this neighborhood and for the life of me I cannot figure out why everybody who lives there suddenly wants to move out. This is an older neighborhood with small but well maintained tract housing. The streets have mature trees and, as you can see, the streets do not go through so there is not a lot of traffic. There are no condos or industry, it is a pure residential area. So what gives?

After an exhaustive (trust me, it was) review of the listings, they break down thusly:

Held for less than 5 years: 15 listingsHeld since the 90s: 3 listingsHeld since at least the 70s: 11 listings

It looks to me like you have a fairly even split between people who were flippers (or nearly flippers) and people who are trying to cash out of their long term investments. But still, I don't get what's going on here. Sorry, but I just don't think that 29 people in this small neighborhood suddenly had a big life change and needs to sell their house. Disagree? Well then let's just go a few blocks away to Lake Balboa and see what's listed there:

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't know much about that part of the valley, but there's a big difference between Encino and "Lake Balboa" (which is really Van Nuys, no?). Lake Balboa houses are definitely cheaper than Encino Village houses. They're north of Victory, they probably go to a different HS, they're in close proximity to the VN Airport, etc. -- they are just cheaper.

I've read that houses under $500 are finding themsleves in a unique market. Similar to the multi-million properties you read about on LA Land, there's these pockets of the market that are reacting to unique forces. The market for "affordable" housing is still hot. And I'm sure Lake Balboa prices are a couple hunder thousand dollars cheaper. It's houses in the $500K-$1,000K zone that are actually kind of soft.

Thanks for reading and commenting, I really like to hear from people who are familiar with the Valley.

First, keep in mind that the map shows active listings, not sales. I am perplexed why so many people are listing in Encino Village and I think your comment is a little more geared toward sales rates in Encino Village. Nevertheless, you raise some interesting (and relevant) points.

While there is a big price difference between Encino and Lake Balboa (formerly known as Van Nuys), the area highlighted is "Encino Village" or "Encino Park." Essentially, it's straddling Reseda/Van Nuys and is about as far from the hills (which is what most people think of as pure "Encino") as you can get.

You also write: "They're north of Victory, they probably go to a different HS, they're in close proximity to the VN Airport, etc"

Encino Village is between Victory and Burbank and Lake Balboa is between Victory and Vanowen, they both border Balboa, so it's not a huge geographic difference. In fact, the kids in both neighborhoods would go to Birmingham High and Mulholland Jr. High. Both neighborhoods are in the Van Nuys Airport flight path.

3 bed homes in Lake Balboa are currently selling in the low $600s (assuming they don't have an alley, or apartments in the backyard, the usual detractors). And they are indeed flying off the market, there were at least four sales in the past month. There was a recent sale over $700k on Petit Ave North of Victory. However, there are no homes in the $800k range. As you can see, there are quite a few homes in Encino Village that are priced in the $600k range but there are also some in the high $700k range so there definitely are some pricing/property differences.

But even if you are right, and these are truly materially different neighborhoods, if you scan the Ziprealty.com map, I think you will not find a surrounding neighborhood that has this many listings (unless there are condos, which is a whole different ball game).

Finally, you say: "The market for "affordable" housing is still hot...It's houses in the $500K-$1,000K zone that are actually kind of soft."

That's an interesting point. I'm sort of under the impression that with subprime exploding, the lower end houses are standing still but the closer you get to $1M the more houses are moving (because there are more buyers in this range who can get loan approval). But I really don't have any stats to back that up for the Valley, so I can't say.

Here we go again, talking about things we know little or nothing about........grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Perpetuating false information in the name of technology! There are relatively huge differences between the 3 areas that you talk about. People buying into Encino Village do not look at Encino Park, and I know, from personal experience that they don't even consider Lake Balboa (of course, generally speaking, as there are individual circumstances that one can find). Lake Balboa and Encino Park people generally like to step up to Encino Village or Sherman Oaks or Tarzana. As for reasons why there is this so called Fire Sale in Encino Village?: well let's see....1 wants to move to Texas for a different lifestyle, 1 is a short sale, 1 moved to Santa Clarita for a job change, 1 is moving to Colorado to be near friends and family, 1 moved to Amestoy Estates into a 2M home, and 2 people died!! Shall I go on?

No thanks, I'd prefer to spend my time with more life affirming tasks than you obviously do, over and over and over again in this blog, which has yet to see any real value outside bashing everything and everyone you encounter. I'm sure you are fun at a cocktail party.

Yes, the world would be such a perfect place if only it were full of Pollyanas who wouldn't say shit even if they had a mouth of full of it. Imagine how great it would be if people never spoke out against fraud or avarice. What a utopia that would be!

I know I am responding to an old listing, however, I want to clarify what is a wrong assumption of the original posting.

Encino Village and Encino Park are two separate communities and are far different.

Encino Village is bordered by the park at Balboa Sports Center (E), Louise (W), Burbank (So) and Oxnard (No). This is a wonderful community with a well organized neighborhood. Our homes are not the ones you see with multiple listings, rather those homes are in the neighborhood of Encino Park.

On the whole, the homes in Encino Park usually sell for far less than those in Encino Village and have a much smaller square footage.

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